4. Using The Twinhead Durabook N15RI: Build, Keyboard And Mouse, Continued

Finally, even the DVD/CD drive received attention in Twinhead's quest to make the N15RI more rugged. There is a little slider on the drive. Slide it one way and the drive is locked and won't open. Slide it the other way to allow the drive to open normally. Assuming the drive is locked during a fall, the slider should protect it against falling open and getting bent up. At least on the test model I worked with the lock was pretty loose. It tended to slide one way or the other without much contact almost as if it had a mind of its own. I found it a bit annoying when the slider was in the locked position and I wanted to eject a CD or DVD.

A slider locks and unlocks the DVD/CD drive to protect it against damage in case of a fall. However, the slider moves easily and can lock the drive when you're trying to remove a CD or DVD.

It won't take long for me to tell you about the Twinhead Durabook N15RI's keyboard and mouse. To put is simply they are excellent. The keys seem to be just the right size and in the right place for my fingers and the mouse touchpad, buttons and up and down scrolling button are equally well designed. The touch panel has just the right feel, not too slippery or sticky, to maximize pointing precision.

Everything on the keyboard deck is sealed against spills.

I need to say one more thing about the components on the keyboard deck. Everything is sealed against spills. This includes the function lights, the power on off and wireless on off buttons above the keyboard, the keyboard itself, the microphone (three holes on the left just below the keyboard), the speakers (on the left and right of the case just below the Intel and Microsoft stickers), the touchpad, mouse buttons and scrolling button and the power and battery charge lights (on the left side of the deck).